Eleven Comments From ESL Students
It's interesting to get comments from students. Through one of the companies that I teach for I have an almost random selection of students. A student pops up, a workbook pops up, and we start. That's where these comments come from. They are mostly translated from Chinese into English, so it might sound a little odd.
Here they are, in reverse chronological order.
1 - Thank you for your patience
2 - Thanks tor teaching me English toningt.In fact,you should teach my little brother,but he is very shy and it is a first day to learn English.I hope you don't angry with him. Thank you!！
3 - Very patient teacher who will guide children in communication, good teacher
4 - Thank you! Ttacher.
5 - I am sorry, teacher, I will not send my heart, only one, do not mind. I really like your class and I'm glad to meet you
6 - You are a good teacher. You teach well. Thank you.
7 - Teacher you are very good ! I like you soo much ! Your class is very fun ! I will study English forever，and I will see English movie and book ! Hope to see you again ! Bye-bye !
8 - Thank you teacher. It's very good.
9 - I like teaching humorous teaching
10 - Thank you, teacher， I love you， By 。
11 - thanks you very much!
In number 5 you can see that she mentions she only sent one heart and apologizes for it. That's because the kids can rate me after class on a 1 to 5 heart scale, and she accidentally gave me a 1 heart rating, a small matter.
The weird thing about all of these is that they don't overly enthuse me. When I first started teaching I thought that loving testimonials would be the thing to get, what I would want and what would motivate me, but it doesn't seem to work that way. I like the fact that I'm helping some kids in the only two ways that you can help kids, you can motivate them and/or teach them (you can also prevent them from death and injury as much as possible, but that's not part of this job).
What enthuses me more is critical discussion rather than approval. I'm not sure where to go with that insight, but it seems important.
6/25/18 Update
As an addendum, I have three more comments to add.
1 - Thankyou for the class.I learn many things.
2 - Hello, Teacher Jeff! Jerry really likes your class and hopes to see you again soon!
3 - Good standards in English, I like it
7/17/18 Update
And another update.
1 - Thank u my teacher. i will go on working. i expect that we will have a good time next time. see u.
2 - verywellthankyou
It still astounds me that I haven't received a single bad review yet. I've been teaching English online for more than 2 years now. Eventually it seems like it just has to happen.
7/19/18 Update
I asked for it and it came. A not wholly positive review.
1 - Thank you for your patience. The level of painting is very good, but it will waste a lot of course time. If the teacher can be a little more humorous and funny, more rich body language and action effects will be better! The atmosphere of the class is slightly old-fashioned, the children are not easy to concentrate, and the interest in child training is not good, and I hope to improve! Thanks anyway!
I will give a little explanation. What she means by painting is that sometimes I draw on the screen during class to try to engage and entertain the kids - I doodle. Some kids think it's awesome. Her kids had a very hard time focusing. That's what she's talking about when she says "the interest in child training is not good." She isn't saying I'm not interested in training children, the translation probably messed up the syntax which is common between English and Chinese, what she's saying is that her children were not very interested in the training and wouldn't concentrate. Between me and her we still couldn't get the kids to focus, but she is working to improve that. She thinks that maybe it would have worked better for me to use more physical humor, but I don't usually do that. That's probably what she means by "slightly old-fashioned," I like to focus on the content quite a bit. I do have one trick where I swallow and regurgitate a large stuffed caterpillar, and a lot of kids think that's funny, but that's basically my only physical joke. It's all good feedback to think about. The best part about private lessons is that we can work to adjust to the specific context in real time.
8/14/18 Update
Two more happy comments. The first one is pretty straight forward.
1 - Thank you very much,teacher!
The second is a bit different. It can be translated two different ways.
2.1 - Thank you teacher, teacher, you are handsome.
2.2 - Thank you, teacher, teacher you are so cool.
I'll let you decide which one you like more.
9/6/18 Update
This is a simple one, and a good one.
1 - Thank you!
11/8/18 Update
1 - Teacher, thank you, you are very funny and very interesting.
2 - Liming likes you very much!
11/24/18 Update
1 - Nice to meet you teacher,thank you for giving me an interesting lesson
12/13/18 Update
1 - Thank you!Nice to meet you,I hope I can see you next time!
1/7/19 Update
1 - Oh!It’s an interesting and funny English lesson.I’m so happy today.Hope to see you again!Bey-Bey!
2/15/19 Update
1 - You are very good, but unfortunately my phone may have encountered a small problem today, please understand. Although it is an experience class, I have learned a lot. Thank you!
3/20/19 Update
It's a bit of a mix this time.
1 - HI, Jeff! I hope you can speak slowly. It is a bit hard to understand for me.Thanks!
2 - Teacher, thank you for giving me lessons. I like your humor and passion, and I prefer your patient explanation. It makes me happy to learn. Thank you.
5/3/19 Update
1 - Thank you, teacher, I really like your humor, you are a great teacher.
"The City of Peace" - A future history science fiction utopia/dystopia action adventure in a framed story of a father telling his son a story about the child's grandfather.
http://www.jeffreyalexandermartin.com/2017/08/the-xprize-writing-contest-part-5-of-5.html
"The Birth of Hanniba'al" - A dark, somewhat alternative, historical origin story for the Carthage General Hannibal.
http://www.jeffreyalexandermartin.com/2017/11/write-michigan-short-story-contest-part_30.html
Here are three of my most popular posts.
"The Making of a Great First Line in Fiction"
http://www.jeffreyalexandermartin.com/2017/12/the-making-of-great-first-line-in.html
"A Letter to My Niece in 2034"
http://www.jeffreyalexandermartin.com/2017/12/a-letter-to-my-niece-in-2034.html
"The Most Important Question in Philosophy - Part 4 of 4"
http://www.jeffreyalexandermartin.com/2017/11/the-most-important-question-in.html
You can find more of what I'm doing here: http://www.JeffreyAlexanderMartin.com
You can support this page at https://www.patreon.com/JeffreyAlexanderMartin
Here they are, in reverse chronological order.
1 - Thank you for your patience
2 - Thanks tor teaching me English toningt.In fact,you should teach my little brother,but he is very shy and it is a first day to learn English.I hope you don't angry with him. Thank you!！
3 - Very patient teacher who will guide children in communication, good teacher
4 - Thank you! Ttacher.
5 - I am sorry, teacher, I will not send my heart, only one, do not mind. I really like your class and I'm glad to meet you
6 - You are a good teacher. You teach well. Thank you.
7 - Teacher you are very good ! I like you soo much ! Your class is very fun ! I will study English forever，and I will see English movie and book ! Hope to see you again ! Bye-bye !
8 - Thank you teacher. It's very good.
9 - I like teaching humorous teaching
10 - Thank you, teacher， I love you， By 。
11 - thanks you very much!
In number 5 you can see that she mentions she only sent one heart and apologizes for it. That's because the kids can rate me after class on a 1 to 5 heart scale, and she accidentally gave me a 1 heart rating, a small matter.
The weird thing about all of these is that they don't overly enthuse me. When I first started teaching I thought that loving testimonials would be the thing to get, what I would want and what would motivate me, but it doesn't seem to work that way. I like the fact that I'm helping some kids in the only two ways that you can help kids, you can motivate them and/or teach them (you can also prevent them from death and injury as much as possible, but that's not part of this job).
What enthuses me more is critical discussion rather than approval. I'm not sure where to go with that insight, but it seems important.
6/25/18 Update
As an addendum, I have three more comments to add.
1 - Thankyou for the class.I learn many things.
2 - Hello, Teacher Jeff! Jerry really likes your class and hopes to see you again soon!
3 - Good standards in English, I like it
7/17/18 Update
And another update.
1 - Thank u my teacher. i will go on working. i expect that we will have a good time next time. see u.
2 - verywellthankyou
It still astounds me that I haven't received a single bad review yet. I've been teaching English online for more than 2 years now. Eventually it seems like it just has to happen.
7/19/18 Update
I asked for it and it came. A not wholly positive review.
1 - Thank you for your patience. The level of painting is very good, but it will waste a lot of course time. If the teacher can be a little more humorous and funny, more rich body language and action effects will be better! The atmosphere of the class is slightly old-fashioned, the children are not easy to concentrate, and the interest in child training is not good, and I hope to improve! Thanks anyway!
I will give a little explanation. What she means by painting is that sometimes I draw on the screen during class to try to engage and entertain the kids - I doodle. Some kids think it's awesome. Her kids had a very hard time focusing. That's what she's talking about when she says "the interest in child training is not good." She isn't saying I'm not interested in training children, the translation probably messed up the syntax which is common between English and Chinese, what she's saying is that her children were not very interested in the training and wouldn't concentrate. Between me and her we still couldn't get the kids to focus, but she is working to improve that. She thinks that maybe it would have worked better for me to use more physical humor, but I don't usually do that. That's probably what she means by "slightly old-fashioned," I like to focus on the content quite a bit. I do have one trick where I swallow and regurgitate a large stuffed caterpillar, and a lot of kids think that's funny, but that's basically my only physical joke. It's all good feedback to think about. The best part about private lessons is that we can work to adjust to the specific context in real time.
8/14/18 Update
Two more happy comments. The first one is pretty straight forward.
1 - Thank you very much,teacher!
The second is a bit different. It can be translated two different ways.
2.1 - Thank you teacher, teacher, you are handsome.
2.2 - Thank you, teacher, teacher you are so cool.
I'll let you decide which one you like more.
9/6/18 Update
This is a simple one, and a good one.
1 - Thank you!
11/8/18 Update
1 - Teacher, thank you, you are very funny and very interesting.
2 - Liming likes you very much!
11/24/18 Update
1 - Nice to meet you teacher,thank you for giving me an interesting lesson
12/13/18 Update
1 - Thank you!Nice to meet you,I hope I can see you next time!
1/7/19 Update
1 - Oh!It’s an interesting and funny English lesson.I’m so happy today.Hope to see you again!Bey-Bey!
2/15/19 Update
1 - You are very good, but unfortunately my phone may have encountered a small problem today, please understand. Although it is an experience class, I have learned a lot. Thank you!
3/20/19 Update
It's a bit of a mix this time.
1 - HI, Jeff! I hope you can speak slowly. It is a bit hard to understand for me.Thanks!
2 - Teacher, thank you for giving me lessons. I like your humor and passion, and I prefer your patient explanation. It makes me happy to learn. Thank you.
5/3/19 Update
1 - Thank you, teacher, I really like your humor, you are a great teacher.
________________________________________________
I've written two fictional pieces that I like so far.
"The City of Peace" - A future history science fiction utopia/dystopia action adventure in a framed story of a father telling his son a story about the child's grandfather.
http://www.jeffreyalexandermartin.com/2017/08/the-xprize-writing-contest-part-5-of-5.html
"The Birth of Hanniba'al" - A dark, somewhat alternative, historical origin story for the Carthage General Hannibal.
http://www.jeffreyalexandermartin.com/2017/11/write-michigan-short-story-contest-part_30.html
Here are three of my most popular posts.
"The Making of a Great First Line in Fiction"
http://www.jeffreyalexandermartin.com/2017/12/the-making-of-great-first-line-in.html
"A Letter to My Niece in 2034"
http://www.jeffreyalexandermartin.com/2017/12/a-letter-to-my-niece-in-2034.html
"The Most Important Question in Philosophy - Part 4 of 4"
http://www.jeffreyalexandermartin.com/2017/11/the-most-important-question-in.html
You can find more of what I'm doing here: http://www.JeffreyAlexanderMartin.com
You can support this page at https://www.patreon.com/JeffreyAlexanderMartin
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